STAR banks on music for its new 9pm offering 'Millie'

Star Plus' primetime has seen a facelift in 2005. The channel first reduced its one-hour weeklies to half-hour bringing 'Kkavyanjali' in the 9.30 pm band and come April 4, 2005, these weeklies will be wrapped to house 'Millie' in the 9.00 pm slot. While the on-air promos have begun, the channel gets into the second peg of its marketing campaign today around the new show.

'Millie' would be the third mega launch for Star Plus in 2005, after 'Kkavyanjali' and 'LOC'. The channel is going all out to build the Indian viewer's curiosity around the show. Ajay Vidyasagar, Head, Marketing, STAR India said that the marketing of the show is two pronged - one around the music video and the second around the characters of the show.

"The music video has already gone on-air and is playing in high rotation on Channel V," said Vidyasagar. "The second peg of the campaign establishes the characters of the show, with the characters of the show talking about Millie and Millie talking about them. With a month to go for the launch, " he added.

The channel has planned a complete 360-degree approach around the show with spots on radio, print, outdoor and on-ground. "While we would be promoting the show in all mediums, let me emphasise that 80 per cent of our ad efficiencies comes on-air, from promotions on our network itself. This worked brilliantly for 'Kkavyanjali' and w are banking on it for this show too."

Replying to why Star Plus felt the need to revamp its 9.00 to 10.00 pm slot, he said, "Being the leader means working that much harder to serve your viewer and in the process, you have to constantly reinvent yourself. The character of this show is a strong one and you have to agree that this would have to be one of the shows we really believed in to have given it the 9.00 pm slot."

He said that replacing the slot with new shows in a phased manner like this was a studied move to allow the viewer to adjust to the change that the new shows would bring in to their viewing pattern. As for the story, the channel has ensured that the show attracts family audience. The show marks the return of Vinta Nanda, creator of 'Tara' and has raised some expectations in the media fraternity.

The 9.00 pm weeklies presently throw anywhere between 8 to 10 TVR. Is the channel expecting the new show to deliver similar numbers? "Not necessarily in the beginning itself but definitely going forward we do see the show settling in that region." He also said that some or all the 9.00 pm weeklies might just make a come back in days to come, even though nothing is decided on that yet.